It is no secret that for many years it is the Western powers that have been driving scientific progress forward, while the powers of the Islamic world have been playing the role of catching up. But less than eight centuries ago, things were very different: brilliant Muslim scholars stood at the forefront of the progress of all mankind, while the medieval European kingdoms were mired in the abyss of ignorance and fratricidal wars. What changed the course of scientific and technological progress so dramatically, throwing the Eastern powers back centuries?

The city of Baghdad, located on the banks of the Tigris River, was founded in 762 AD, and by the 11th century it had become the largest economic and cultural center in the entire Middle East. Merchants from distant lands came to the fairs of Baghdad to show the most outlandish goods, the mosques of the city amazed the traveler with their splendor, and the Abbasid Caliph, who ruled a huge state from Baghdad, was secretly considered the main ruler of all Muslim lands. By the middle of the 13th century, up to 3 million people lived in Baghdad - a huge number even for our time. But this did not play a major role in the brilliance and grandeur of Baghdad. The city was a kind of capital of the all-Muslim cultural space - the concentration of knowledge accumulated over hundreds of years. The loyal attitude towards foreign religions and the patronage of science by the Abbasid caliphs attracted scholars from all over the world to Baghdad, whose work was often ahead of its time in many areas of science. Let's list just a few of them.

In astronomy, the world's largest observatory was created in a short time, the length of the earth's circumference was calculated with high accuracy, the rotation of the Earth around its axis and around the Sun was proved, spots appearing on the Sun were discovered, the duration of the solar year was calculated, which differs from today's data by only 24 seconds. Muslim geographers tirelessly added more and more new geographical objects to atlases, while recording their location using longitude and latitude, and characterized the climatic zones of lands within travel reach.

Islamic scientists have made a truly invaluable contribution to mathematics: it is simply impossible to imagine modern science without their achievements. Decimal counting systems, fractions, complex operations of division and multiplication - all this was discovered by the outstanding Khorezmian mathematician Al-Khwarizmi. By the way, by the name of his work "al-Jabr" modern science is called "algebra".

Muslim doctors deserve special admiration. While in European countries they continued to be treated with herbal decoctions and prayers, eye surgeries were performed in Islamic medical institutions, restoring sight to hundreds of people.

Oriental philosophers, physicists, and biologists deserve no less attention. The enumeration of their achievements will take more than a dozen pages, but we cannot but mention the founder of modern chemistry, Jabir Ibn Hayyan, whose books European alchemists studied for a long time.

All this invaluable knowledge spread throughout all Muslim lands and numerous universities located in large cities, but was mainly concentrated in impregnable Baghdad, which was tirelessly guarded by a garrison of 50,000 people. No one even thought that any of the enemies could crush the powerful Abbasid Caliphate, surrounded on all sides by loyal allies, who together could field over a million soldiers under the green banner.

But such enemies were found. With a swift whirlwind, the Mongol troops led by Genghis Khan swept through the lands of China and the endless Asian steppes, approaching the flourishing cities of the Middle East. The first state to fall at the hands of the Mongols was the state of Khorezm. The strongest state was defeated by the nomads in less than one year. For some time, the Mongols took a break, but several times from 1238 to 1246 they violated the border of the caliphate, but it did not come to big clashes. Finally, in 1253 AD. Mongol Khan Munke decided to annex the lands of modern Iraq to his empire and began preparations for war.

The Mongol army under the command of Hulagu (Mongke's brother) crossed the border of the Abbasid Caliphate in 1257, facing the Caliph's considerable forces. On the banks of the Tigris River, the Muslim army suffered a crushing defeat and retreated into the city, after which the Mongols approached the walls of the settlement. The invaders were ready to spare the whole city and its defenders if they surrendered, but the Caliph decided to persevere and ordered to defend the walls to the last soldier. The descendants of Genghis Khan did not give a second chance, and on January 29, 1257, they began to lay siege to the impregnable walls, which fell on February 10, 1258. The enlightened city was doomed - thousands of Mongol warriors burst into the streets, suppressing the resistance of the remnants of the Caliph garrison. After the destruction of the garrison, the invaders switched to civilians and numerous buildings inside the city. During the week, the sky over Baghdad burned from numerous fires even at night, and the massacre of the townspeople did not stop for a minute.

The conquered cities did not know for a long time the cruelty that the Mongols demonstrated in those days. The winners did not understand who they were cutting: whether a simple bricklayer or a famous scientist. Children and women were not spared either. According to modern estimates, up to a million inhabitants could die on the streets of the city! The Abbasid caliph, who had been watching the destruction of the capital all this time, was trampled to death by horses.

According to eyewitnesses, all manuscripts were taken out of libraries and burned on the banks of the Tigris River. There was also a massacre with pundits, because of which the water in the river turned blood-black.

Finally, after 7 days, Hulagu gave the order to stop the looting of Baghdad, and he himself moved his headquarters from the leeward side of the city - the stench from decaying corpses was unbearable, and only ruins remained from the once magnificent capital. It was during those fateful events that countless scrolls with learned texts were lost. The Mongols - free nomads and warriors - simply did not need all the knowledge accumulated over centuries of painstaking work. It took more than one century for Baghdad to recover from the ruins, but the title of the world's cultural and scientific capital was lost forever.

European countries, on the other hand, were practically not affected by the invasion of the Mongols. The descendants of Genghis Khan undertook a reconnaissance campaign against the Catholic states, defeating the knightly armies outnumbering them on their way, but limited themselves to reconnaissance. According to the results, the Mongols abandoned the conquest of European lands due to the climatic features of the new territory for them. While Eastern science was thrown back centuries and lost its foundation, the European kingdoms took advantage of the situation and seized the initiative in scientific and technological progress.

So from 1258 the golden age of Islam began to fade. Lost knowledge could not be restored, and outstanding scientists who appeared sporadically could not fundamentally influence the situation - after all, Baghdad not only stored invaluable scientific data, but also controlled a wide network of schools and universities throughout the country. Let us quote a well-known historian who expressed with unusual accuracy the consequences of the destruction of Baghdad for the entire Islamic world.

"Iraq 1258 significantly different from contemporary. System channels supported more thousands years. Baghdad was brilliant intellectual center peace. A fall Baghdad was psychological blow, from whom Islamic world Not recovered. Islam closed V yourself, became more conservative, intolerant To conflicts faith And reason. WITH looting Baghdad faded away intellectual beacon Islam. Scale losses was comparable With destruction Athens Pericles And Aristotle. Mongols destroyed land reclamation channels And left Iraq, which already Not recovered. »

( Stephen Dutch )

What would the modern world be like if the Mongol khans directed their tumens at the states of Europe, or if the Abbasid state managed to put up against the conquerors? Perhaps the scientific and economic world centers would be in a completely different part of the world than now, and the political map of the world would have nothing to do with the modern one. History shows how the events of centuries ago radically change the world, surprise, make you think.

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For centuries, Baghdad was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, whose rulers were descendants of Muhammad's uncle Abbas. In the middle of the 8th century they overthrew the Umayyads and moved the capital of the Caliphate from Damascus to Baghdad. Since then, the city has grown and prospered, at the peak of its development, the number of citizens reached almost a million people, and 60 thousand soldiers guarded the capital. The city was a cultural capital, famous for its beautiful palaces and mosques, a library that kept the most important knowledge accumulated over the centuries, and rare handwritten scrolls. However, by the middle of the 13th century, the Abbasid house began to lose its influence, the caliph was under the rule of Turkic-speaking military leaders and the Mamluks. But Baghdad continued to be a rich city and cultural center.

The Mongol empire expanded in the east and increasingly paid attention to the lands of the Abbasids. The caliphs tried to keep peace with the Mongols, even sending their soldiers to them as a tribute. However, despite this, the Mongols made several attempts to capture Baghdad, but the city repulsed their claims both in 1238 and in 1245. The Mongols did not abandon their attempts to subjugate the caliphate and demanded that the Caliph of Baghdad submit to the kagan and personally come to the capital of the Mongol Empire, Karakorum . The illustrious dynasty did not take this step. Then in 1257, the grandson of Genghis Khan and the ruler of the Mongols Munke firmly decided to establish his power in Mesopotamia, Syria and Iran.

The device of Baghdad

The military campaign, which was called the Yellow Crusade, was entrusted by the kagan to his brother Hulagu. One of the tasks was the subjugation of the Abbasid Caliphate and the payment of tribute by soldiers in order to strengthen the Mongol army. In case of disobedience, Munch ordered the destruction of Baghdad. Hulagu began preparations for the campaign and ordered every tenth man fit for war by age to be taken into the army. In this way the Mongols mustered about 150,000 men, their largest army, according to some sources. The Mongol army was significantly reinforced by Christians: it included Armenians led by their king, French Christians from Antioch, Georgians who were eager to avenge the devastation of Tiflis, and Nestorian Christians. There is also mention of a thousand Chinese engineers who accompanied the Mongol army, of Persian and Turkic mercenaries.

Khan Hulagu

Hulagu's army showed its power in subjugating the Lurs and the Assassins (as the Nizari Ismailis were called). The Mongols almost without a fight took the impregnable fortress of Alamut and moved to Baghdad. Hulagu sent an envoy to the Baghdad caliph al-Mustasim with Munke's demands. However, the caliph refused to submit to them, and largely thanks to his adviser and grand vizier Ibn al-Alkami. He was later accused of incompetence and misjudging the danger of a Mongol invasion. The vizier convinced al-Mustasim that Baghdad was safe, and in which case, the entire Islamic world would stand up for him. The arrogant caliph rather sharply and insultingly responded to Hulagu's proposal. The Mongols began preparations for the siege and stopped any negotiations. The Caliph of Baghdad calmed down and did not even bother to order to gather troops and strengthen the city walls. This frivolity of the ruler will turn into a catastrophe for all his subjects.

Battle near the walls of Baghdad

On January 11, 1258, the Mongol army approached the walls of the city. Hulagu transported part of the soldiers to the other side of the Tigris River and thus took Baghdad "in pincers." Then al-Mustasim realized the seriousness of what was happening and sent about 20,000 cavalry to give battle to the Mongols. But almost the entire detachment was destroyed. Mongolian sappers broke through the dikes along the Tigris and the Abbasid army drowned. The caliph called for about 50,000 soldiers to defend the city, but the people were poorly equipped, discipline in the army was also lame. Al-Musta'sim could have invited soldiers from other Muslim empires, but he neglected this opportunity.

The siege of Baghdad began on 29 January. Chinese engineers ordered to dig a ditch around the city, installed catapults, surrounded the city with a palisade and siege structures. By February 5, the Mongols were able to recapture part of the city wall. Realizing that there was little chance of victory, the caliph tried to enter into negotiations with Hulagu, but the offended Mongol commander decided to go to the end, as his brother ordered him. On February 10, Baghdad surrendered. Three days later the Mongols entered the city. Hulagu gave the capital of the Caliphate to be plundered for a week.

City siege

The Mongols staged a real massacre, they did not spare anyone. Those who tried to escape from the capital were caught by Hulagu's people and mercilessly killed. Until now, historians cannot establish the exact number of victims, some say more than 100,000 people, others believe that the Mongols killed about a million people. The streets were covered in blood and the city filled with the dead. The stench from the corpses was so unbearable that the Mongols moved their headquarters to the leeward side of Baghdad. Hulagu did not hesitate to crack down not only on the inhabitants of the city, but also on its cultural heritage. Beautiful palaces, mosques, hospitals, state buildings, the House of Wisdom - the Islamic Academy and its library, which contained the most important scientific manuscripts of that time in medicine, astronomy and other fields, were destroyed. Books and scrolls were thrown into the river to cross it. They say that the Tiger was black from the ink washed off the scrolls and red from the blood of scientists and philosophers. The city was in flames and agony.

Caliph al-Mustasim was captured and forced to watch the death of his people, after which the Mongols dealt with him. According to one report, he was trampled. The Mongols wrapped the Caliph in a carpet and led their cavalry over him. They hoped that in this way the earth would not be offended, that they shed royal blood. However, the famous traveler Marco Polo claimed that Hulagu locked the caliph in a treasury, among gold and precious stones, without food and water, and he "died like a dog." All the children of the caliph, except for one, were destroyed. The only survivor was sent to Hagan Munk in Mongolia, where he lived without any political power and influence.

Caliph imprisoned in a treasure tower

Baghdad lay in ruins, it took more than one century to restore the city. The population was exterminated, buildings and cultural monuments were destroyed, the irrigation system was destroyed and agriculture fell into decay. The ruin of the city led to the decline of the Islamic Golden Age and the end of the Abbasin dynasty. According to scientists, the fall of Baghdad was a heavy blow for the Muslim world: Islam became more conservative and intolerant, and the intellectual potential of civilization was sunk in the waters of the Tigris.

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Battle on Lake Peipsi (Battle on the Ice)
1242

Like the battle on the City River, the Battle on the Ice, known to everyone since school years, is surrounded by a host of myths, legends and pseudo-historical interpretations. It is extremely difficult to understand this heap of truth, fabrications and outright lies, or rather, to separate one from the other. In this case, the authors of this book decided to abandon the extreme versions - "there was no battle at all, there was a small skirmish between two insignificant detachments" and "the great clash of Rus' with Catholic Europe, which sought to conquer all Russian lands." Maybe one or the other is right, but it is more likely that it was like this ...

The war of the Livonian Landmaster of the Teutonic Order (often called the Livonian Order, which is not entirely true) with Novgorod began in the summer of 1240, when the Livonians moved troops from the Baltic to Rus' and occupied Izborsk and Pskov. Pskov was taken without a fight: most likely, at that time, an anti-Mongolian group dominated there, which considered the crusader knights to be a lesser evil than the Mongols, and the only reliable defense against the steppes after the Batu pogrom of Rus'. But by the summer of 1241 the situation had changed. The defeat by the Mongols at Liegnitz of the combined Polish-German army, in which there were also Teutonic knights, led to the fact that native Germany was already under a clear threat. In this situation, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order could not provide any support to the Livonian knights in the east, and their own forces after the defeat in 1236 near Siauliai were small. And of course, after Liegnitz and Chaillot, the value of knights as a defense against the Mongols fell to almost zero.

The shock that engulfed Europe during the Mongol pogrom, of course, greatly facilitated the counteroffensive of the Novgorod prince Alexander Yaroslavich. In the winter campaign of 1241–42, his army liberated Pskov, and then, moving to the eastern (considered German) shore of Lake Peipus, headed for Izborsk. The Livonian army moved towards him.

As far as can be judged, the Livonian army was quite strong, given the recent losses and the lack of help from the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order. It had from thirty to fifty "full brothers", that is, full-fledged knights, and a significant number of heavily armed cavalry. It should not be forgotten that each "brother" was accompanied by his own detachment of squires, mounted sergeants of the order, mercenaries-bollards, horsemen and footmen. It is difficult to estimate the size of such a detachment: according to indirect data, it ranged from ten to thirty people. In general, this most combat-ready part of the crusading army probably numbered from six hundred to one thousand two hundred people, of which two-thirds (and perhaps more) were heavily armed cavalry. Hence, by the way, there is such a discrepancy in the issue of Livonian losses in the Battle of the Ice: the German "Rhymed Chronicle" speaks of twenty dead "brothers", not mentioning other losses at all; Russian sources speak of four hundred killed German knights. In general, it’s understandable - for Russians there was no difference between a “full brother” and, say, a sergeant: once on a horse and in armor, it means a knight.

The second and more numerous part of the Livonian army was made up of forced Estonians (in Russian sources - Chud). It was a militia, poorly armed and poorly combat-ready. Here the assessment is even more difficult, since there are no data at all in the sources. However, one argument can be made: the Estonians, who had just been conquered by the crusaders, were a very unreliable ally, and the number of such allies was always commensurate with the forces of loyal units. Simply put, the loyal part of the army must be stronger in order to be able to force the unstable contingent to obey. Taking into account the ratio of the combat effectiveness of the professional army and the militia, the number of Estonians could be from three to five thousand people, no more. Thus, the entire crusader army can be estimated, of course, very approximately, at five thousand people, of which about a thousand were professional soldiers.

Having received news of the approach of the crusader army, Alexander Nevsky turned from Izborsk to the west. Here, on the western shore of Lake Peipsi, and partly on its ice, the famous Battle of the Ice took place on April 5, 1242. The army of the Novgorod prince in this battle was not numerically inferior, but most likely slightly superior to the Livonian, but it also consisted of a poorly trained militia for the most part. The number of professional soldiers - the princely and boyar squads - hardly exceeded a thousand. It can be admitted that the forces were relatively equal - perhaps with a slight advantage of the Russians.

The offensive, however, was launched by the Livonian side. Since no acceptable description of the battle has been preserved, it can be assumed that the crusader army went on the offensive in the usual way: ahead of the bollards-shooters, behind them the cavalry, and then the militia, whose tasks included the pursuit and destruction of the already defeated enemy - it is easy to solve independent combat missions couldn't.

Battle on the Ice. Miniature from a Russian annalistic code of the 16th century

The battle began with the usual skirmish, which the Russian archers withstood. This was followed by an attack by the knightly cavalry. Of course, there was no “pig”, in the style of the late infantry square, and could not be - the tactics of equestrian offensive combat do not know such formations. Perhaps due to the peculiarities of the landscape - and the Russians certainly expected a strike on the shore of the lake - the Crusaders attacked with a wedge, and not with lava, which was the source of this ridiculous definition of the Livonian system. Be that as it may, the first blow of the Livonian cavalry was successful - she managed to break into the thick of the Russian army, where a fierce battle ensued. But the continuation was disastrous for the crusaders. From both flanks, the Russians hit the attacking cavalry, actually holding it in a vise. The smaller number of Livonians also had an effect. Their cavalry attack choked, and the Russians, attacking from three sides, began to squeeze the knights onto the ice of Lake Peipus. This is where most of the crusaders died.

The Estonian militia, seeing the defeat of the knights, began to retreat (or rather, rushed to run), but it was too late. The blow of the Russians destroyed the remnants of the formation, and the battle turned into a beating. The Russian chronicle writes: "... and the fall of Chudi was beschisla", that is, the defeat was complete.

The victory over the Livonian knights was extremely important in military and political terms. The onslaught of the Germans on Eastern Europe was delayed for a long time. Novgorod the Great retained the ability to maintain economic and cultural ties with European countries, defended the possibility of access to the Baltic Sea, and defended Russian lands in the North-Western region. The psychological significance of victory is also great. After heavy defeats from the Mongols, after the “death of the Russian land”, the Battle of Peipus proved that Rus' is alive and capable of defeating enemies. In Novgorod, the Battle of the Germans on the Ice was remembered for a long time: back in the 16th century, it was commemorated at litanies in all Novgorod churches.

Battle of Gaza (La Forbier)
1244

The severe crisis that engulfed the crusading movement after the Fourth Crusade sharply worsened the military and political situation of the Christian states of the Levant. It did not lead, however, to a complete cessation of the practice of crusade expeditions, nor to serious direct military consequences for the Holy Land. The scale of the crusading enterprises, of course, decreased, and did not even come close in scope to the first three campaigns. Nevertheless, the crusaders managed to achieve some success. In 1229, not so much by military means as by diplomatic means, the German emperor Frederick II even managed to return holy Jerusalem to Christians by concluding a mutually beneficial agreement with the Egyptian sultan al-Kamil.

The next fifteen years for the states of the Eastern Mediterranean turned out to be quite calm. Al-Kamil strictly complied with the conditions of peace, no obstacles were placed on his part, and especially numerous Christian pilgrims during these years. But the outside world aggravated, as often happens, internal contradictions, and these years were filled mainly with internal struggles in the Kingdom of Jerusalem between the supporters of the emperor and the Palestinian barons. Frederick II himself, too busy with numerous European affairs, could not provide serious support to his adherents, and little by little the baronial aristocracy of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, headed by the house of D'Ibelin, took over.

The end in 1239 of the originally agreed ten-year truce again somewhat intensified hostilities, and the aggressive side, as a rule, were Christians. True, this did not bring them special dividends, but rather, on the contrary, only embittered the descendants of Saladin - the Egyptian Ayyubids. The death of al-Kamil, a supporter of peace, unleashed the hands of his descendants, and they decided to take a desperate step, calling for help in the fight against Christians the Khorezmian army, which was expelled from their homeland by the victorious Mongols and for many years wandered throughout the Near and Middle East, engaging in wars and robbery. The death of the last Khorezmshah, Jalal ad-Din, turned the remnants of the Khorezmians into an uncontrollable horde that served the highest bidder and sometimes bit its own master. By this time, the horde numbered about twenty thousand more people and represented a considerable force. It was they who were called by the successor of al-Kamil, Eyyub, and as a first payment he offered them almost defenseless Jerusalem.

The Templars follow Christ. Medieval miniature of the 13th century

In 1244, the Khorezmian horde attacked the city, which at that time was almost not fortified. The Christians did not accept the battle and lost the holy city - this time for good. The Khorezmians plundered it to the ground, but did not linger in it, but moved south, towards Egypt. Somewhere along the way, they joined up with a significant army of the Egyptian Sultan, in which the later famous Baibars served as an officer. In the Gaza region, the Muslims were overtaken by a united Christian army, and a battle took place on the plain near the village of La Forbier - as fateful as the earlier battle at Hattin.

The battle of Gaza ended in complete disaster for the Christians: more than a thousand knights died, almost all the rest of the army was taken prisoner. This defeat dealt a particularly terrible blow to the spiritual and knightly orders, which lost nine-tenths of their personnel. The tragic martyrology of the losses of the Christian army has been preserved: the Templars - three hundred and twelve brothers-knights, the Hospitallers - three hundred and twenty-five brothers-knights, the Teutons out of four hundred knights survived after the battle three (!) People. Secular feudal lords also suffered huge losses. According to the then estimate of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the total irretrievable losses of the Christian army reached sixteen thousand people. The most combat-ready part of the Christian army remained lying on the coastal plains near the border with Egypt, and the crusading states of the Levant never recovered from this blow.

Capture of Baghdad by the Mongols
1258

The Great Western Campaign of 1236-1242 was not the last in a series of conquest campaigns of the Mongol Empire. The new great Mongol Khan Mengu, who sat on a white felt felt mat in 1251, announces the preparation of two more all-Mongolian campaigns: one was directed against the South Chinese Song Empire, the other against the Baghdad Caliphate and Egypt. The first campaign began in 1253, with the second, the case stalled for some time, since he was actively opposed by another authoritative Mongol leader - the lord of the Jochi ulus, Batu (Batu). Batu did not want to let the imperial troops cross the Amu Darya, since the territories to the west of this river, on the instructions of Genghis Khan, were assigned to the Juchi ulus. And Batu reasonably doubted that the appointed leader of the Islamic campaign, Hulagu (Mengu's brother, son of Tului, the youngest son of Genghis Khan), would later transfer the conquered territories to the house of Jochi.

Only the death of Batu in 1255 finally untied the hands of Mengu Khan. At the beginning of 1256, the all-Mongolian army created by him under the command of Hulagu crossed the Amu Darya and moved to Iran. Its first target was the almost impregnable strongholds of the Assassins located in Kuhistan (Western Iran). The Mongols, not having sufficient forces here, could not subdue them for a long time. But now the situation has changed. Hulagu had a huge army - the size of the Mongol army can be estimated at least one hundred thousand people. The halo of invincibility surrounding the Mongol army also played an important role. As a result, most of the mountain strongholds of the Assassins surrendered to the Mongols without a fight in the autumn of 1256, and only a few, including the formidable Alamut, put up not very strong resistance. After that, Hulagu orders to kill all the Assassins without exception, including women and children. The order was carried out unquestioningly and even with pleasure - the Mongols experienced an almost pathological hatred of the Assassins. Almost two hundred years of history of the terrible Ismaili kingdom of invisible killers ended ingloriously.

After the defeat of the Ismailis, the Caliphate of Baghdad became the obvious main target for the Mongols. Hulagu, however, showed his inherent subtlety of strategic thinking and, instead of a frontal strike, he began a tedious diplomatic correspondence with the Caliph Mustansir, demanding that the ruler of the Islamic world submit to the Mongol authorities. At the same time, separate corps of his army smashed potential allies of the caliph, and at the same time recruited new allies for themselves. Meanwhile, the Caliph, with indignation and very great self-confidence, rejected all the claims of the Mongol Khan. At the same time, he pinned special hopes not on his armies, but on Allah, who, of course, could not allow some godless nomads to defeat him, the heir of the Prophet Muhammad himself. The Seljuk lessons did not suit the Caliph.

Hulagu, however, did not believe in Allah, and in January 1258 he advanced with his army under the walls of Baghdad. To the surprise of the caliph, Allah did not send any snowfalls on the Mongols, similar to the one that in 1217 disrupted the campaign against Baghdad of Khorezmshah Muhammad. There was not even rain, and the pestilence expected by the caliph also for some reason bypassed the Mongol army. In addition, the steppes inflicted a heavy defeat on the field army of the Caliph not far from Baghdad, and now there was nowhere to wait for help from the city. Soon, Chinese engineers, following with the Hulagu army, deployed stone-throwing machines against the city and began a massive shelling of the ancient capital of the caliphs. By mid-February, it became clear even to the near-minded Mustansir that his position was hopeless, and he surrendered to the mercy of the Mongol ruler.

Fall of Baghdad. Persian drawing from the 14th century

Hulagu, however, showed no mercy. Since Baghdad dared to resist the Mongols, he, in full accordance with the precepts of his great grandfather, doomed the city to complete plunder and destruction. The inhabitants of Baghdad were for the most part massacred; the caliph himself did not escape this fate. On February 20, 1258, the last Abbasid Caliph Mustansir was executed by order of Hulagu - more than six hundred years of the history of the Arab Caliphate ended.

Hulagu captured truly fabulous wealth in Baghdad: after all, the Abbasids had been collecting valuables for half a millennium! Ceremonial robes of the Caliph were counted in thousands, gold dinars and silver dirhams - in hundreds of thousands and millions. And according to the information transmitted by Rashid ad-Din, the Mongols managed to discover a secret well in the Caliph's palace, filled to the brim not with water, but with gold ingots. Equally abundant treasures have been seized from numerous Islamic shrines; these shrines themselves, including the famous cathedral mosque of the caliphs, were burned by order of Hulagu. Truly, those were black days for Islam.

The capture of Baghdad by the "pagans" plunged the entire Islamic world into mourning. Eschatological sentiments reigned among Muslims, which greatly facilitated further conquests for Hulagu. In the next two years, under the onslaught of the invincible steppe tumens, the strongholds of Iraq, Syria, and Palestine collapse one after another. In 1259, Hulagu's troops enter the holy city of the three world religions - Jerusalem; impregnable Damascus surrenders to them, and by the spring of 1260, the vanguard of the Mongol army under the command of Kitbuga captures Gaza on the very border with Egypt. The Muslim world is on the verge of destruction.

Battle of Ain Jalut
1260

By 1260, the Islamic world seemed doomed. After the conquest of Baghdad in 1258, the invincible Tumens of Hulagu launched their next blow against Muslim Syria. Under their onslaught impregnable Aleppo fell, and ancient Damascus, horrified by the terrible conquerors, itself opened the gates to them. The war came to the very threshold of Egypt - the only sufficiently strong Islamic state at that time. The defeat of Egypt - and Hulagu's army was obviously stronger than the Mamluk army - would mean the end of the organized and really serious resistance of Islam. The path "to the last sea" would have been opened, since the Almohad power, which received a crushing blow at Las Navas de Tolosa, was already living out its last days. However, history has chosen its own path...

In the midst of all these events, far to the east, in Karakorum, the great Khan of the Mongols Munke dies, and Hulagu, taking most of the army, hurries to the great kurultai - a meeting of the Mongol nobility - where the election of a new great khan, the leader of all Mongols, should take place. In Palestine, he leaves his vanguard of two or three tumens under the command of Kitbugi-noyon, and in order not to risk it, he orders him to refrain from active hostilities and limit himself to necessary defense. Everything seemed to be thought out enough, but the actions of Hulagu led to very difficult consequences for the Mongols and saved the almost doomed Muslim world.

The militant Mamluks who settled in Egypt were extremely encouraged by the departure of most of the Hulagu army and risked taking advantage of the chance that suddenly presented itself to them. And then they found completely unexpected allies. The spiritual and knightly monastic orders of the Templars and St. John, based in Palestine, suddenly decided to support their sworn enemies. In general, much depended on the position of the Christians, and now, when the forces of the opponents were approximately equal, their help to one of the parties could be of decisive importance at that moment. Kitbuga, perfectly oriented in the situation, sends a friendly embassy to Acre, because Christians are potential supporters of the Mongols, and the prince of Antioch, Bohemond, generally concluded an alliance with Hulagu. And then a group of Templars - longtime opponents of an alliance with the Mongols - kills the ambassadors. After that, there was no choice left: from the point of view of the Mongols, the murder of ambassadors is one of the worst crimes.

Mamluk cavalryman. From a 19th century painting

This act of the Templars, as well as their subsequent actions - the Templars provide the Mamluks with the opportunity to lead troops through the Kingdom of Jerusalem of the Crusaders and, thereby, go to the rear of the Kitbugi Mongols who did not expect this - to this day cause serious controversy among historians. Proponents of the Yellow Crusade 7
“The Yellow Crusade” – this is how the prominent Russian historian L.N. Gumilev. The name is due to the presence of a large number of Nestorian Christians in the Mongol army, in particular, Naiman Kitbuga was apparently also a Christian.

They directly call the Templars traitors to a certain “common cause”. Given the fact that one of the leaders of the crusaders, Prince Bohemond, went over to the side of Hulagu, the alliance of the Levantine Christians with the Mongols cannot be considered something unthinkable. But whether this would become that “common cause” is a big question. The goal of the Mongols, the goal of Hulagu, was not the defeat of Islam, but the conquest of new lands. Christians in this campaign could only be temporary allies of the Mongols. So for the Christians of the Holy Land, joining the Mongols meant the same thing as taking a tiger as an ally: it is difficult to predict whether he will tear your enemies apart or attack you. The old enemy - Egypt - was long and well known and, although it was a serious threat, it was at least a threat familiar and, in the opinion of most crusaders, not as dangerous as the invincible Mongols. After all, Europeans have not yet forgotten Liegnitz and Chaillot. In general, you can understand the Templars, but you also need to understand that the alliance with the Mongols was the last chance to maintain a Christian presence in the Holy Land - another question is for how long.

The 30,000-strong Mamluk army, which left Egypt on July 26, 1260, was commanded by Sultan Kutuz, the commander of the avant-garde was the Kipchak (Polovtsian) Baibars. As already mentioned, the Mamluks passed through the Kingdom of Jerusalem and in early September went to Galilee, to the rear of the Kitbugi Mongols. Here, on September 3, near the small village of Ain-Jalut, a battle took place that saved the Islamic world from destruction.

The forces of the opponents were, apparently, numerically approximately equal. In addition to the Mongol troops proper, there were also Armenian and Georgian detachments in the army of Kitbuga, but their combat effectiveness was low, like that of any forced soldiers. The Mamluk army consisted only of professional warriors, and, moreover, warriors who had special reasons to hate the Mongols: after all, a significant part of the Mamluks, starting with Baybars himself, were former Mongol captives captured in the Great Western Campaign of 1236-1242. Sold in the slave markets, they ended up in Egypt, where they replenished this unusual slave guard. And the desire for revenge was not the last feeling leading the Mamluks into battle.

The battle began with the attack of the Mongols. Tumens of Kitbuga crashed into the vanguard of Baybars and after an extremely fierce battle, the Mamluks began to retreat. Perhaps it was this initial bitterness that clouded the mind of the natural nomad Kitbuga. He rushed to pursue the retreating, without even assuming that this retreat could be a false one - and after all, the tactics of a false retreat was one of the foundations of Mongolian military science. Kitbuga did not take into account that he was opposed, in fact, by the same nomads, only former ones - and he got caught. When his tumens were sufficiently involved in the pursuit, the Mamluks of Qutuz attacked the Mongol army from both flanks from behind low hills. The vanguard of Baybars turned around and also struck at the confused Mongols.

The defeat of the Mongol army was complete. Almost no one was able to escape from the hellish ring of death. The commander of the Mongols, Kitbuga, was also captured: he was later executed on the orders of Kutuz. Only a very small part of the Mongol army managed to escape, but, pursued by the Mamluks, they fled far to the north. It is also interesting that in this battle, as in Chaillot, unusual weapons were used, only now not by the Mongols, but by their opponents. At the Battle of Ain Jalut, a whole series of ingenious means were used to frighten the Mongol horses and throw confusion into the enemy ranks: incendiary arrows, rockets, small midfa cannons, "spark throwers" tied to spears, bundles of powder firecrackers on poles. In order not to burn themselves, their carriers dressed in thick woolen clothes and covered the exposed parts of the body with talcum powder. This is one of the earliest uses of gunpowder known to us in history.

The victory at Ain Jalut greatly encouraged the Mamluks. After her, the Mamluks rushed forward, captured Jerusalem, Damascus, Aleppo and most of Syria. Baybars himself was now at the head of them, in October 1260 he killed Kutuz and proclaimed himself the new sultan of Egypt and Syria. Only at the Euphrates, the Mamluk troops were stopped by the Hulagu army hastily transferred from Mongolia. But here a new blow awaits the Mongol Ilkhan: Batu's brother Berke is moving against him with a huge army, having declared the claims of the Jochids to Arran and Azerbaijan, bequeathed to them by Genghis Khan. Hulagu moved his army towards him, and on the banks of the Terek, an exceptionally bloody battle took place between the two Mongol armies. Hulagu suffered a heavy defeat in this battle, and the enormous losses suffered by his army did not allow him to seize the initiative again on the Islamic front. A fairly stable status quo has developed in Western Asia. The Islamic world survived, and the Mamluks were able to cope with their ancient enemy - the crusaders of the Levant.

Great battles. 100 battles that changed the course of history Domanin Alexander Anatolyevich

Capture of Baghdad by the Mongols 1258

Capture of Baghdad by the Mongols

The Great Western Campaign of 1236-1242 was not the last in a series of conquest campaigns of the Mongol Empire. The new great Mongol Khan Mengu, who sat on a white felt felt mat in 1251, announces the preparation of two more all-Mongolian campaigns: one was directed against the South Chinese Song Empire, the other against the Baghdad Caliphate and Egypt. The first campaign began in 1253, with the second, the case stalled for some time, since he was actively opposed by another authoritative Mongol leader - the lord of the Jochi ulus, Batu (Batu). Batu did not want to let the imperial troops cross the Amu Darya, since the territories to the west of this river, on the instructions of Genghis Khan, were assigned to the Juchi ulus. And Batu reasonably doubted that the appointed leader of the Islamic campaign, Hulagu (Mengu's brother, son of Tului, the youngest son of Genghis Khan), would later transfer the conquered territories to the house of Jochi.

Only the death of Batu in 1255 finally untied the hands of Mengu Khan. At the beginning of 1256, the all-Mongolian army created by him under the command of Hulagu crossed the Amu Darya and moved to Iran. Its first target was the almost impregnable strongholds of the Assassins located in Kuhistan (Western Iran). The Mongols, not having sufficient forces here, could not subdue them for a long time. But now the situation has changed. Hulagu had a huge army - the size of the Mongol army can be estimated at least one hundred thousand people. The halo of invincibility surrounding the Mongol army also played an important role. As a result, most of the mountain strongholds of the Assassins surrendered to the Mongols without a fight in the autumn of 1256, and only a few, including the formidable Alamut, put up not very strong resistance. After that, Hulagu orders to kill all the Assassins without exception, including women and children. The order was carried out unquestioningly and even with pleasure - the Mongols experienced an almost pathological hatred of the Assassins. Almost two hundred years of history of the terrible Ismaili kingdom of invisible killers ended ingloriously.

After the defeat of the Ismailis, the Caliphate of Baghdad became the obvious main target for the Mongols. Hulagu, however, showed his inherent subtlety of strategic thinking and, instead of a frontal strike, he began a tedious diplomatic correspondence with the Caliph Mustansir, demanding that the ruler of the Islamic world submit to the Mongol authorities. At the same time, separate corps of his army smashed potential allies of the caliph, and at the same time recruited new allies for themselves. Meanwhile, the Caliph, with indignation and very great self-confidence, rejected all the claims of the Mongol Khan. At the same time, he pinned special hopes not on his armies, but on Allah, who, of course, could not allow some godless nomads to defeat him, the heir of the Prophet Muhammad himself. The Seljuk lessons did not suit the Caliph.

Hulagu, however, did not believe in Allah, and in January 1258 he advanced with his army under the walls of Baghdad. To the surprise of the caliph, Allah did not send any snowfalls on the Mongols, similar to the one that in 1217 disrupted the campaign against Baghdad of Khorezmshah Muhammad. There was not even rain, and the pestilence expected by the caliph also for some reason bypassed the Mongol army. In addition, the steppes inflicted a heavy defeat on the field army of the Caliph not far from Baghdad, and now there was nowhere to wait for help from the city. Soon, Chinese engineers, following with the Hulagu army, deployed stone-throwing machines against the city and began a massive shelling of the ancient capital of the caliphs. By mid-February, it became clear even to the near-minded Mustansir that his position was hopeless, and he surrendered to the mercy of the Mongol ruler.

Fall of Baghdad. Persian drawing from the 14th century

Hulagu, however, showed no mercy. Since Baghdad dared to resist the Mongols, he, in full accordance with the precepts of his great grandfather, doomed the city to complete plunder and destruction. The inhabitants of Baghdad were for the most part massacred; the caliph himself did not escape this fate. On February 20, 1258, the last Abbasid Caliph Mustansir was executed by order of Hulagu - more than six hundred years of the history of the Arab Caliphate ended.

Hulagu captured truly fabulous wealth in Baghdad: after all, the Abbasids had been collecting valuables for half a millennium! Ceremonial robes of the Caliph were counted in thousands, gold dinars and silver dirhams - in hundreds of thousands and millions. And according to the information transmitted by Rashid ad-Din, the Mongols managed to discover a secret well in the Caliph's palace, filled to the brim not with water, but with gold ingots. Equally abundant treasures have been seized from numerous Islamic shrines; these shrines themselves, including the famous cathedral mosque of the caliphs, were burned by order of Hulagu. Truly, those were black days for Islam.

The capture of Baghdad by the "pagans" plunged the entire Islamic world into mourning. Eschatological sentiments reigned among Muslims, which greatly facilitated further conquests for Hulagu. In the next two years, under the onslaught of the invincible steppe tumens, the strongholds of Iraq, Syria, and Palestine collapse one after another. In 1259, Hulagu's troops enter the holy city of the three world religions - Jerusalem; impregnable Damascus surrenders to them, and by the spring of 1260, the vanguard of the Mongol army under the command of Kitbuga captures Gaza on the very border with Egypt. The Muslim world is on the verge of destruction.